The Naked Trader's Guide to Spread Betting: How to Make Money from Shares in Up or Down Markets Paperback - 2010

Robbie Burns has been a journalist and writer since he graduated in Journalism from Harlow College in 1981. After starting life as a reporter and editor for various local newspapers, from 1988-1992 he was editor of ITV and Channel 4's teletext services. He also wrote ITV's daily teletext soap opera 'Park Avenue' for 5 years. He then went on to freelance for various newspapers, including The Independent and The Sun, and also helped set up a financial news service for CNN. In 1997 he became editor of BSkyB's teletext services and set up their shares and finance service. While there he also set up various entertainment phone lines in conjunction with BSkyB, including a Buffy the Vampire Slayer phone line which made him nearly 250,000.
He left full-time work in 2001 to trade and run his own businesses, which included a cafe in London that he later sold, doubling his money on the initial purchase. While at BSkyB, Robbie broadcast a diary of his share trades, which became hugely popular. He transferred the diary to his website, www.nakedtrader.co.uk, which became one of the most-read financial websites in the UK. Between 2002 and 2005 he wrote a column for The Sunday Times, 'My DIY Pension', featuring share buys and sells made for his pension fund, which he runs himself in a SIPP (self-invested personal pension). As chronicled in these articles, he managed to double the money in his pension fund from 40,000 to 80,000 in under three years. By 2009 he had doubled it again, reaching 165,000. Robbie now writes a weekly column for the leading financial website, ADVFN.com. Robbie has made a tax-free profit of over 900,000 since 1999, and has made a profit every year, even during the market downturns of 2000-2002 and 2008-2009. Public trades made for his website have made nearly 800,000.
He lives in a riverside apartment on the Thames in London with his wife, Elizabeth, plus son Christopher and cat Domino. His hobbies include chess, running, swimming, horse racing, and trading shares from his bedroom, erm...naked. After all, he wouldn't be seen dead in a thong!